“How Was Your Day?” is a narrative-driven, point-and-click adventure from Mad Carnival, with a newly released demo available now as a part of the Women’s Day Event run by WINGS. Players take on the role of Diya as her day goes from bad to worse with a sinister twist. We spoke to Sam Ramlu, the founder of Mad Carnival, about this upcoming game and how her own personal experiences has shaped the vision of “How Was Your Day?”.
Thanks for being here today. How are things going? You recently went to the WePlay Expo last year. How did that go for you and the team?
Things are going well! Yes, the idea for WePlay was to gauge the appetite for this game in China and look at the potential for localising the game for that region. I’ve done a lot of research on this genre of game and the localisations that are typically done, so was wanting to assess the Chinese market as that is one of the top translations. It was interesting to go and see if the idea of “How Was Your Day?” would resonate (and translate). Because it is uniquely set in New Zealand in the 80s, it’s very specific, but the story is something that could be present anywhere in the world. It’s a teen, coming-of-age story, and that’s universal. It was a busy time as I was also presenting Wanderer: The Fragments of Fate to see the engagement for VR games (as a co-founder and Executive Producer at Mighty Eyes.)
Can you tell us about yourself and the story behind Mad Carnival? You also own Mighty Eyes and Method?
My partner and I set up Method in 2003, which was essentially a web design/web development studio, and we quickly found a unique place in the market doing some exciting experimental sites. We did a lot of Flash websites and gamification campaigns, experimenting with things like Xbox Kinect and getting into AR and VR. Method was there to help companies, brands, and products really stand out in the market; we’ve worked with a lot of companies over the past 22 years!
Mad Carnival Games was set up in 2011 as a brand that we wanted to make our own games under; we ended up getting quite busy with Method though, and parked the idea of Mad Carnival for a while. For a few years, we did wonder if we should close Mad Carnival but it just never felt like the right time. We thought maybe we were holding on to a pipe dream!
Over time we launched another brand – M Theory – this was our AR/VR arm. Through this and in collaboration with Oddboy we started work on a time travel adventure game in VR. With some NZ Film Commission funding we create a vertical slice that eventually caught the eye of Sony – M Theory and Oddboy merged to become what is now Mighty Eyes.
So my career has been full of a lot of M brands! In late 2021 we got an amazing opportunity from Snap to develop a game for their platform, one of the first hybrid AR mobile games and I saw this as an opportunity to resurrect Mad Carnival as a wholly family-friendly, inclusive game studio creating non-violent games. A big driver for this was my son (five years old at the time); I wanted to create more content that he could engage with and that we could play together. Specifically after COVID where, having to turn to digital more and more I realised the lack of good quality family friendly games.
One of the first games we created was Postcards from Aotearoa, pitched during COVID; the ethos behind this was to bring joy to people during a very hard time and we created a beautiful game that did just that, something that really cemented the Mad Carnival brand. The Snap project I mentioned before, unfortunately, died off because Snap’s whole platform closed pretty much overnight. We then moved on to Bustin’, another fun, joy-filled title for mobile.
My passion, or favourite genre, has always been point-and-click adventure games, narrative adventures with puzzle-solving aspects. I’ve always dreamed of making something inspired by one of my favourite games of all time, Gabriel Knight – a classic point-and-click adventure game, so I started thinking along these lines for our next game.
This next step for Mad Carnival, is this how “How Was Your Day?” came about?
The idea came to life quite organically. I was walking home with my son from school one day, and, as usual, I asked, “How was your day?” My son is young; he’s still generally very much engaged and we have a great relationship. But, even he can give short answers with not too much detail. It made me think; do teens feel their interactions with their parents play out like Groundhog Day, with each day seemingly repeating.
As parents, we genuinely want to know the answer to that question. Going back to when I was that age, I was much like that, introverted and not wanting to put myself out there. But I’ve found that some of the best things that have happened in my life are when I’ve gone out of my comfort zone. This became the premise for “How Was Your Day?” What would happen if you went out of your comfort zone, if you pushed yourself and connected to the people around you. It formed the idea of a puzzle adventure game where the more questions you ask, the more things open up (not at all unusual in this genre)
This formed a big part of the story, starting with the idea that your parents are genuinely interested and you can have a great relationship with them, but both have to engage with each other. A lot of books, films, and TV shows place kids as hero characters where their parents are either absent or not central to the story. As a parent, who is a big part of my son’s life, I want to change that and place more meaning on engaging with your parents, regardless of whether you’re a teenager; this comes into play in this game. But of course there are other things in the mix as well!
What is the elevator pitch for “How Was Your Day?”
If you think Stranger Things met Groundhog Day, you would get “How Was Your Day?”. We follow a 13-year-old Fijian Indian girl who’s recently moved to New Zealand. She’s having a really bad day and things go from bad to worse; she loses her dog Beans, and something sinister is following her around the town – all on the eve of Diwali.
The next day she realises she’s stuck in a time loop with her dog still missing. The only thing she can do is to open up and start talking to people around her, getting out of her comfort zone, getting out of this loop and finding Beans.
We’re dealing with a time loop with a sinister twist, are we able to get an idea of things we may come across or can expect?
Firstly, we have a whole great cast of characters, some quirky and some very typical Kiwi-style characters. The main character is 13, you meet her parents, her brother, the school troublemaker plus the school goths, and her math teacher. Along with a dairy owner and her very creepy old lady neighbour, who is intent on staring at her every day.
We have beautiful locations to discover, very quintessential New Zealand locations: a small-town, lakeside suburb, the dairy, the school, a lake and forest area, to name some. Imagine the South Island in New Zealand in an 80s setting. I’m loving getting (back) into all the great things about the 80s from a Kiwi point of view. The clothing, the music, collectable cards, and cassette tapes. Things like these add so much more depth to the story.
The core gameplay is essentially moving around town, having conversations, digging deeper with those conversations, and solving puzzles to progress. There are also 8-bit minigames inspired by 80s games. Diya’s outlet to ‘escaping’ out of tough situations is to go into video game mode – so we play this out literally in the game. For example, when she is looking for Beans – instead of walking the streets you go into game mode and play Dogger – a Frogger inspired game.
The narrative is a coming-of-age story with themes around friendship, connection, getting out of your comfort zone and facing your fears. I can’t say more on the story progression without giving too much away, but there are a few elements that you might not expect.
So the audience can expect a number of minigames throughout “How Was Your Day?” on top of the narrative adventure?
Yes, definitely. I think point and click by itself could have gone too much down the walking simulator route. Games like Oxenfree, for example, which are beautiful with rich dialogue and story, can get repetitive/cumbersome after a while.
I loved the idea that we could bring the 80s to life with a time loop element with puzzles and collectables. I think that will make people feel like they’re not just walking around talking to people and break that potential monotony.
What made you choose the 80s setting?
Initially there was a key component of the story that had an 80s link so this felt natural as well as thinking about how we might style the mini-games and link these to the narrative. That key component has morphed but the 80s remained and my lived experience naturally started feeding into the narrative.
So in thinking about why Diya was having such a bad day a new immigrant story (similar to my own experience) felt appropriate. Diya’s recently moved to New Zealand and is feeling really displaced. Myles, her brother, is fitting in really well, with new friends and his first serious girlfriend. Diya’s parents are distracted with managing their family, jobs, and finances through this upheaval. A lot of the character traits are from my own experience while also being quite different. Diya feels alone and finding Beans has been her only salvation.
How big is the team behind “How Was Your Day?”
I’ve essentially formed a great team of contractors to work with me on this – Mitch Duncan from Eat Pant Games (Teeto) as our very multi-talented developer, a great up and coming artist, Laura Davies, my Method team magician/animator Lahiru De Silva, UI design courtesy of the wonderful Becca O’Shea (with some of my own dabbling thrown in) and some specific illustrations from Scott Pearson (who we’ve worked with almost since Method’s inception).
I’ve done the bulk of the narrative story framing with a lot of bouncing back and forth with an old high school writer friend of mine, Jen Wilton. I’m directing, designing and writing (along with co-writer Louis Mendiola). We’ve got James Dean from Akau Audio working on audio and creating some awesome original songs that have solid 80s vibes. Meeting Laura felt like serendipity and it was the missing piece last year after some false starts in production. She reached out randomly and I fell in love with her art style which she’s pushed to meet my vision. While I’ve helped guide the artistic direction Laura knows exactly how to get a beautifully warm and rich aesthetic coming through – showing our beautiful country in the best gaming light. I feel like Laura and I connecting is exactly the type of amazing thing that can happen if you reach out and I’m so glad she took that step. It’s especially been wonderful seeing the amazing work and I get excited every time I see a message from her with a new illustration to review.
How long has “How Was Your Day?” been in development?
From the idea and funding in 2023 we didn’t really start until early 2024 so coming on to a year now.
With the experience running Method and Mighty Eyes, what are the things you’ve learned that you’re bringing to “How Was Your Day?”.
I’ve been working in this space creating experiences for over 20 years now. For me, it’s always been about creating something that looks beautiful but also incites connection and a visceral reaction. I just love creating! Method’s a great studio for creating family-friendly content, and that’s come across nicely to Mad Carnival.
I really enjoy playing video games with my son; we enjoyed Dredge when it came out and I love the moments sitting down and finding an exciting game to play together and I want to create more moments like that.
I’ve been managing projects for 20 years now, so I feel like I know how to manage a project well, pull the right people together, and deliver an amazing experience. I believe we’ve really done that here. I love the awesome mix of people we have for “How Was Your Day?” and what they all bring to this (very personal) game. We’ve done that throughout the years with all our studios, bringing the right people together and creating amazing experiences.
Do you have an idea of a release date for “How Was Your Day?“
It was originally going to be later this year, but I want to find the right publisher so the game really gets its time to shine. Getting the right publisher would help us market to the right audience; I don’t want the game to be lost in the Steam store (like so many other great games). So we’ll launch around Diwali 2026, which coincidentally ends up being the same date as Diwali in the game – again, serendipitous.
Do you have a rough length in mind for “How Was Your Day?”
I would say at this stage, 8-10 hours. It should be a decent amount of time but also depends on how people would play. You don’t have to engage with all the conversations but you might also spend hours on the mini games.
Steam is currently the expected platform; are there any others in mind for the future?
I would love to do Nintendo Switch; I think that would be a natural fit. We have developed with controllers in mind for future so are thinking ahead. It would be awesome to also be on Xbox and PlayStation; I think there’s also an appetite on those platforms for this style of game.
The NZ video game industry has definitely grown a lot in the past few years. How has it progressed from when you started to developing “How Was Your Day?”
We weren’t really in the video game industry to begin with. We knew we wanted to create games, but to be honest there wasn’t much of an industry. We were doing gamified/gamification stuff without going into full game development. We didn’t have any of our own funding for games so couldn’t really get into this full time. We did start looking at creating mobile games, before mobile took off so missed the growth on this market.
It’s probably been a career-long problem. Often doing things before they took off, moving onto the next thing and missing out on the eventual growth/success of that specific area. We did miss some opportunities and mobile gaming was definitely one of them but life’s too short for regrets.
I love that the industry has grown so much more accessible – people can make games now that reflect themselves. How Was Your Day? would never have been possible 5 years ago – one because of the industry but also because of my own growth and acceptance of myself.
I love seeing the games that are coming out of New Zealand. CODE specifically has been a (wait for it) game changer to our industry. I still remember the early days of CODE and how much it has grown since. The one thing that hasn’t changed is how passionate they all are about helping people and seeing them succeed. It’s not just for the sake of the industry; they genuinely care for the people in the studios.
What is the next step for “How Was Your Day?“
We are a part of the Women’s Day Event run by WINGS – our demo is now available in Steam. Next steps are to check, test, and write! Then repeat. Like my own time loop! I’m nervous, but I really want people to play this. I feel like there is a genuine, great story in “How Was Your Day?”.
I have GDC coming up where we’re looking for publishers, and it’s really just focusing on getting the right one so we can get the game out there and to the right people. After that, it’s writing and more writing, marketing, and just getting the game made and out there.
How can people best keep up with “How Was Your Day?” and Mad Carnival?
Definitely BlueSky, please come and follow us over there; we’re also on X & TikTok. To keep track of our regular updates, we’ve got a website. You can also wishlist us on Steam and then play the demo!
Don’t forget to check out other GamesNight interviews with New Zealand video games such as Teeto, Burger Bois and Project Mix!
